North Queensland will host Canberra as both sides look to get off to a bright start in 2023.
Later tonight, the Sharks take on the Rabbitohs to round off the first Saturday of the NRL season.
Earlier, Daly Cherry-Evans and Tom Trbojevic starred as Manly smashed Canterbury 31-6.
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Manly Sea Eagles 31 def Canterbury Bulldogs 6
Daly Cherry-Evans and Tom Trbojevic have ensured new coach Anthony Seibold’s era at Manly got off to a winning start, starring in a 31-6 NRL defeat of Canterbury.
Playing in his first match since he dislocated his shoulder last May, Trbojevic scored one try and had a hand in two others as Manly controlled Saturday’s match at 4 Pines Park.
Cherry-Evans bagged a hat-trick of tries and kicked a field goal, while the Sea Eagles ended the seven-match losing streak that snuffed out their 2022 campaign after the Pride Jersey saga.
For new Canterbury coach Cameron Ciraldo, the loss highlighted concerns around his team’s pack with Luke Thompson and Tevita Pangai both missing through injury.
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Manly dominated the Bulldogs’ inexperienced pack through the middle, allowing them to spend the majority of the match on the front foot.
The game wasn’t without drama though, with the Sea Eagles scoring two tries while Kyle Flanagan was controversially sin-binned.
With scores locked at 6-6 shortly before half time, Flanagan was punished by the bunker for lightly pushing Trbojevic in pursuit of a grubber kick.
Manly then scored down Flanagan’s left edge minutes later, when Trbojevic and Kelma Tualagi put winger Reuben Garrick over untouched.
With Flanagan still off early in the second half, the Sea Eagles were then able to extend their lead to 12 when Cherry-Evans toed the ball ahead three times and dotted down after a Paul Alamoti error.
In reality though, Manly were the better team throughout.
They scored first when Trbojevic toed ahead a Cherry-Evans grubber kick, and the pair combined again in the second half for the halfback to score after a Taniela Paseka bust.
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Trbojevic’s timing was still not perfect and at stages he stopped himself from breaking into full flight, but he got through unscathed after the $50,000 trip to the US to work on his problematic hamstrings.
Manly pulled the superstar fullback from the field with 16 minutes to play to protect him, but he returned moments later when Lachlan Croker suffered a concussion.
Cherry-Evans then iced the match with a 50-metre intercept for his third try, as Canterbury looked every bit a side with eight new faces from last year.
Matt Burton’s bombs were dangerous when on target, but he and Viliame Kikau both put kicks out on the full while another kick off from the five-eighth also went astray.
Kikau was well contained, with Max King the sole Bulldogs forward to exceed 80 run metres.
The Bulldogs’ one try came when hooker Reed Mahoney collected his own grubber kick off the posts and was ruled to have got the ball to ground without dropping it.
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